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Thursday, January 2, 2014

Beating the Seasonal Blah's - Living Lessons

Beating the Seasonal Blah’s: by
Christopher Wiles

Do any of you struggle with what is properly known as
seasonal affective disorder (SAD)? When
I was taking pastoral counseling classes at Lipscomb, I first heard about
SAD. Being young and inexperienced, I mistakenly
thought it was a joke when my professor taught on it during a class on
depression. As I got married and got to
know more people on deeper levels, I came to experience the seasonal blah’s as
an authentic phenomenon that produces real struggles. Whether SAD comes from the let-down after Christmas adrenaline,
from upsetting the diet with too many sweets, or from the winter lack of sunlight, many
people are affected this time of year by varying levels of depression.

While it’s not necessarily something you’ll find in one of
my counseling textbooks, I think you’ll find my following “Four P’s” useful to
beat SAD and encourage you to read familiarize yourself more with the Bible too.

1. Pray Preemptively
- If you have known yourself to struggle with SAD in the past, begin
preemptively praying with hope that God will bring you through this season with
a smile. Pray about it now before times
get tough. Jesus prayed before tough
times such as in Matthew 4 and Matthew 26.

2. Plan time
with People – Schedule time with people. You likely had the last few weeks scheduled out
with how you were going to spend your time and who you were going to spend it
with. Return to that system of planning
time with people, especially if you are an extrovert. Jesus spent time often with large groups and with
a small group of his closest friends such as in Matthew 14 and Like 22.

3. Plan Physical
Activity – Schedule in physical activity for the next few weeks. You can find that in a temporary YMCA
membership, or by doing some manual labor in serving your elderly friends and
neighbors. Go outdoors to trim their
trees, change their landscaping, or chop wood.
Do work indoors by moving all the furniture for them and vacuuming
underneath. Whatever it is, plan it and
be purposeful in it. Jesus likely spent a lot
of time walking and doing labor as a carpenter in
Mark 6:33.

4. Purposeful
&Proper Eating – You
might have just gone through a time of upsetting your normal diet with a lot of
sweets and junk food which can lead to energy loss and symptoms of
depression. There’s no time like right
now to temporarily adopt a Daniel diet
or evaluate your food choices based on Philippians 3:18-19 to avoid being like
those who will be destroyed because “their God is their belly.”

These are just some of my proactive ways to beat SAD. Please feel free to call me for encouragement if you begin
feeling SAD this season.

*Special Note for Husbands* If you find your wife suddenly being more down-in-the-dumps than usual without an apparent reason, don't worry. First sit with her, listen to her, and love on her. Don't automatically prescribe the "4 P's". She'll appreciate it and you'll feel better too. Then talk positively about how to work through this time.